Internet Desk: India put up a stellar and a dominating performance and defeated when they thrashed former champions Indonesia and kept their hopes alive in the knockout berth of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship.
India suffered a humiliating loss against Denmark in their opening match were they lost 1-4 and desperately need a win to keep their place in the tournament.
As both India and Denmark have won one match each, the team which will reach the knockout berth will be decided in the next encounter between Indonesia and Denmark.
If Indonesia manages to defeat Denmark then number of matches, points and games would be tallied as only two teams can qualify for the knockout stage from the Group 1D.
India, ranked ninth, have managed to reach the knockout stage of the tournament only once during the 2011 edition, while in the last two editions they couldn’t even cross the group stage.
Starting the proceedings, the new pair of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini produced another gritty performance to eke out a 22-20 17-21 21-19 over Tontowi Ahmad and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in a mixed doubles match that lasted an hour and six minutes.
Former World No. 3 Srikanth, who had reached the finals at Singapore Open recently, saw off Jonatan Christie 21-15 21 -16 to make it 2-0 in India’s favour.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty then suffered a 9-21 17-21 loss against World No. 1 Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo as Indonesia gained a point.
However, Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu then defeated Fitriani Fitriani 21-9 21-19 in a 42-minute women’s singles match to guide India to an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match rubber.
In the fifth match, the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold runners-up pair of Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy then prevailed 21-12 21-19 over World No 15 Della Destiara Haris and Rosyita Eka Putri Sar to complete a 4-1 drubbing.